Testimony opens in murder trial of parolee accused of killing Royal Oak woman

Tonia Watson sits in the jury box in the Oakland County Circuit Court room of Judge Colleen A. O'Brien waiting on her arraignment. Watson is accused of murdering 80-year-old Nancy Dailey. The Oakland Press/DOUG BAUMAN

Though she's no longer facing trial herself and has yet to take the witness stand, the testimony of Tonia Watson was a main focus Tuesday in Oakland County Circuit Court.

Watson agreed to a plea deal last month in exchange for testifying against Alan Wood, who faces first-degree and felony murder charges in the November 2011 death of Nancy Dailey, 80, of Royal Oak.

Wood's trial began Tuesday and could have ended 90 minutes later, when defense attorney Elias Escobedo filed a motion for mistrial regarding a statement made by Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Tricia Dare during opening statements.

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Dare referenced Watson's plea deal but told jurors that Watson would not receive the lighter sentence if her testimony were not truthful. Escobedo argued that the prosecution was vouching for Watson's testimony.

Oakland County Circuit Judge Colleen O'Brien denied the motion, which was made following testimony from the trial's first witness.

Leah Storto, Dailey's cousin, was first to take the stand Tuesday. She was in constant contact with Dailey almost every day and found her lying in a pool of blood shortly after she was killed.

"She was very loving and kind and generous and fun, and many people will forever miss her," Storto said while choking back tears.

Storto went to Dailey's house after calling her several times without receiving an answer. She enlisted the help of Dailey's neighbor, Steven Schram, and used her key to enter Dailey's home.

"As I passed through the kitchen, I noticed that the land phone, the phone piece was off, missing, and the cord was dangling, and I thought 'That's unusual. Nancy wouldn't be able to pull it off.'

"As I passed through the dining room I saw Nancy lying face down between the bathroom and the bedroom in the hallway."

Schram -- a Detroit police officer -- turned Dailey over. He called 911 and told the dispatcher to "send the cops" because "it's going to be a crime scene."

"I noticed that her face was covered and dripping with blood," Storto said.

That was a direct result of the "horrific and unimaginable way that Nancy Dailey's life came to an end," Dare said during her opening statement.

"A brutal end, because the defendant, Alan Wood, brutally murdered Nancy Dailey ... by pulling her to the ground by the hair, by punching her repeatedly, by stomping her head and her body with his heavy work boots, by attempting to strangle her, by taking a knife and slicing her neck from one side to the other and then, the final blow -- a stab wound to her carotid artery that caused her to bleed to death.

Escobedo said the case is about FEAR -- "False Evidence Appearing Real."

"None of the physical evidence ... will have my client's blood on it, nor will it have Ms. Dailey's blood on it."

Watson, who Escobedo called the "prosecution's star witness," was a drug and sex addict who was "absolutely obsessed" with Wood, Escobedo said.

"She cut her deal with the devil, Tonia Watson did, because instead of spending the rest of her natural life in prison and dying there, that's not going to happen to Tonia Watson."

Royal Oak Police Detective Carl Barretto was the final witness to testify. He said a fingerprint was recovered from a jewelry box found under Dailey's body, but it was not sufficient for technicians to use. Another fingerprint, found on a jewelry box on top of Dailey's dresser, matched Tonia Watson's fingerprints.

Barretto was under cross-examination when O'Brien dismissed court for the day around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. After a day off, jurors will return at 8:30 a.m. Thursday.